FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE - PAGE 5

(Reuters) - Former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger Damien Duff has signed a one-year deal with Australia's Melbourne City, the A-League club said on Tuesday after securing their second major international signing in a week. The Manchester City-owned club last week announced the recruitment of Spain's all-time leading goalscorer David Villa for a three-month stint between October-December. Duff, who has 100 international caps for Ireland, left relegated Fulham last month and had also played for Blackburn Rovers in the English Premier League.

Marcos Baghdatis suffered his fourth opening-round defeat in five Masters tournaments this year, losing to German wild card Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 6-3 in Hamburg, Germany. A teenager who uses a wheelchair can't earn points for racing with her high school track team until Maryland officials change the rules. Sprinter Tatyana McFadden has spina bifida. U.S. District Judge Andre Davis ruled that while state rules may be unfair to wheelchair athletes, they are not discriminatory under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Abel Xavier of Portugal agreed to join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League soccer on a free transfer.

Maurice Hargrow scored 22 points to lead host Minnesota to an 84-70 victory over Hawaii in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Gophers advanced to the quarterfinals against the winner of Tuesday's Temple-Rhode Island game. Iowa was eliminated by Georgia Tech 79-78 as B.J. Elder scored with less than a second left. - U.S. soccer goalkeeper Kasey Keller, 33, signed a one-year contract extension through the 2004-05 season with Tottenham of the English Premier League.

Bernd Stange, Iraq's national coach, is trying to drum up support for his scattered team. Many of whose players are missing because of war. Stange began his search Monday in United Arab Emirates. Many of the German coach's players were soldiers in the army of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Stange said he was able to contact a few team officials, including Hussain Saeed, Ra'ad Hammoudi and Amu Baba, in Baghdad. - Blackburn's Brad Friedel, who led the U.S. to the World Cup quarterfinals, became the first American picked for the English Premier League team of the year when he was voted the top goalkeeper by his fellow players.

PLAYER: Agust'n Delgado (F) CLUB: LDU de Quito (Ecuador) GROUP OPPONENTS: Costa Rica, Germany, Poland With Ecuador scoring only one goal in its last five matches, the pressure is on Delgado to reverse the recent trend. Delgado scored five goals during qualifying and is excellent with headers, though he is known to cause just as much havoc in the air as he does in the locker room. A back injury has hurt Delgado's career, which he says will come to an end in international competition after this, his second World Cup. Did you know: Delgado became the first Ecuadorian to play in the English Premier League when he joined Southampton.

The Fire will open the Major League Soccer season March 23 with four straight road matches before its home opener April 27--at a still-to-be-determined location. The Fire has yet to announce officially where it will play the 2002 season while Soldier Field is being renovated. The season opener will be in Columbus against the Crew. The Fire will also face D.C. United, Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey before its home opener against the New England Revolution. The 28-game regular season concludes Sept.

Aug 17 (Reuters) - Liverpool have completed the signing of Morocco winger Oussama Assaidi from Heerenveen, the English Premier League club said on Friday. Assaidi, 24, scored 20 goals in 68 appearances for the Dutch first division side last season. He is new Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers' third signing since he took charge at Anfield following Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen and Italian striker Fabio Borini from AS Roma. "I'm very happy to play for this big club," Assaidi said in a statement on Liverpool's website (www.liverpoolfc.com)

Nov 21 (Reuters) - Aston Villa winger Brett Holman was named Australian footballer of the year on Wednesday following his successful move to the English Premier League. The 28-year-old follows goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer (2009, 2010) and Matt McKay (2011) in winning the award, which was launched by Football Federation Australia four years ago. Holman, one of Australia's most consistent performers, spent 10 years in the Netherlands, most recently with AZ Alkmaar, before joining Villa in the close season.